I’m tired of the constant blaming of baby boomers for the economic woes facing young people these days. SBS’s program about cashed up baby boomers has a bunch of clearly upper middle class baby boomers who bought property when they were younger. They are held up as typical examples of baby boomer wealth. But they are not typical. Most of my same age friends worked long hours, didn’t go to the gym three days a week, or have expensive holidays or buy designer clothes for themselves and their kids and we never went out for dinner. We went without so we could save a deposit and buy a home with a 25 year payback period. The year my husband and I finally took out our mortgage, in 1978, my salary was $16,000 a year full time and his was $18,000. My second mortgage in 1989, many years later, was with the Commonwealth bank and the interest rate was 17.5%. I was a single mum. My loan was for 25 years was $60,000 and my salary was $42,000 for a full time role. Many of my friends had similar stories of hardship. But we just got on with it. I know mortgages these days are horrendous but that’s not my fault.
